Finance
Spinners Axar Patel (3-16) and Ravi Bishnoi (1-17) suppressed Australian batsmen in the middle overs as India won the fourth T20I by 20 runs to win the five-match bilateral series 3-1 and set a new record with their 136th T20I triumph.
After restricting Australia to 174/9 in 20 overs with to crucial contributions from Rinku Singh (46), Jitesh Sharma (35), and Yashasvi Jaiswal (37), India appeared to be on the ropes as Australia reached 87/3 in the 12th over.
Spinners Axar Patel, who is recovering from an injury that kept him out of the ODI World Cup, and Ravi Bishnoi bowled well together, taking four wickets for 33 runs in eight overs as Suryakumar Yadav’s side came back strongly to restrict Australia to 154/7 in 20 overs to seal victory for India.
With this victory, India grabbed an unassailable 3-1 lead in the five-match series, earning their fifth consecutive T20I series at home. With this victory, India won their 136th T20I match, breaking Pakistan’s record for most 20-over international wins.
Suryakumar Yadav has also won his first series as captain.
Travis Head, the hero of Australia’s recent 50-over World Cup victory, provided 31, while skipper Matthew Wade smashed an unbeaten 36 off 23 balls. The Australians, on the other hand, found the Indian spinners difficult customers on a field that did not help the spinners.
Axar got the wickets of Travis Head, Ben McDermott (19) and Aaron Hardie (9) while Bishnoi dismissed Josh Philippe (8). Deepak Chahar claimed 2-44 as India left Australia needing to score 40 runs off the last 12 balls. But Mukesh Kumar and Avesh Khan bowled well to prevent them from getting those runs.
Earlier, a late charge by Rinku Singh, who blasted a 29-ball 46, and Jitesh Sharma, who hammered a 19-ball 35, helped India recover from a mid-innings collapse and scamper to 174/9 in 20 overs.
Rinku and Jitesh raised 56 runs for the fifth wicket before India lost a few wickets towards the end of the innings and managed only 174.
After Australia skipper Matthew Wade won the toss and inserted India in to bat first, the hosts raised 50 runs in the sixth over with openers Yashasvi Jaiswal and Ruturaj Gaikwad going great guns at the Shaheed Veer Narayan Singh International Stadium here.
In a stadium that was reportedly experiencing power outages due to unpaid electricity bills, Jaiswal hit six fours and a six in his 28-ball 37 before pacer Aaron Hardie extracted extra bounce with a cross-seam short delivery outside off to have the Indian batter pulling to Ben McDermott, who was running in from mid-on.
Shreyas Iyer (8) and Suryakumar Yadav (1) both fell to Tanveer Sangha and Ben Dwarshuis, respectively, as India dropped two quick wickets.
Ruturaj Gaikwad, who hit three fours and a six in 32 balls, was caught by Dwarshuis off Sangha as he sought to go big over extra cover but edged it to short third man.
Brief scores:
India 174/9 in 20 overs (Rinku Singh 45, Yashasvi Jaiswal (37), Jitesh Sharma 35, Ruturaj Gaikwad 32; Ben Dwarshuis 3-40, Jason Behrendorff 2-32, Tanveer Sangha 2-30) beat Australia 154/7 in 20 overs (Travis Head 31, Matthew Wade 36 not out; Axar Patel 3-16, Deepak Chahar 2-44) by 20 runs.
Source:IANS
